The closure led to the loss of thousands of direct jobs, while thousands more in the supply chain were also lost.

However hundreds of people on Teesside continue to work in the industry at British Steel’s plants at Lackenby and Skinningrove.

Westminster’s cross-party steel group - which includes Teesside MPs Anna Turley and Tom Blenkinsop - has now drawn-up a series of measures which could create “a cutting edge industry that will not only survive but that will thrive nationally and globally”.

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Theresa May will be handed an 84-page “master plan to save British steel” as she finalises her industrial strategy.

The Steel 2020 report, seen by the The Gazette’s sister paper Mirror, is published on Monday and is packed with 43 recommendations designed to rejuvenate UK steelmaking.

It identifies seven key areas, including slashing energy prices for manufacturers, imposing tough “defence” measures to tackle Chinese dumping, and striking a “strong trade deal” with the EU after Brexit.

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The report says: “It is essential that the Government acts to create a level playing field for the UK steel industry, which is currently hamstrung by a toxic combination of policies that hobble the industry by comparison to global competitors.

“It is testament to the professionalism, skill and dedication of the workforce that the industry has been able to keep pace and continue to innovate, but without action the industry and communities represented risk a future of perpetual crisis and decline.

“As this report makes clear, that pessimistic future is by no means inevitable.”

Former SSI Steelworks in Redcar (Image: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)

The optimistic blueprint follows a six-month inquiry which generated 170,000 words of evidence.

A source involved in drawing up the report said last night(FRI): “We’ve got to change the mentality that this is a sunset industry.

“It’s about saying this is a modern, hi-tech, vital industry to the British economy and British manufacturing.

“The Government’s got to have a proper long-term strategy for it, not just lurch from one crisis to another.”

The Redcar steelworks closed in 2015 while Britain’s biggest plant, Port Talbot, was up for sale most of last year amid fears Tata would pull out.

Meanwhile, complacent ministers snubbed British steel for a host of bumper projects, including buying French metal for the Navy’s new Trident nuclear submarine fleet, using 4,500 tonnes of Turkish steel and 500 tonnes from Spain for new aircraft carriers and Korean steel for the Navy’s Tide class tankers.

Monday’s report is set to pile pressure on Mrs May to commit to only using British steel in Government procurement projects.

The PM is expected to set out her long-awaited industrial strategy in a speech next week, when MPs on the steel group hope she will offer fresh guarantees for steelmaking.

Their report urges: “We must stand up for the British steel industry, not only to build a better Britain with a more balanced and resilient economy but because we want our country to compete in the 21st Century and build a new model and decade of British prosperity.”